Handrail and reed holder



A. A. GORDON, 3RD

HAND RAIL AND REED HOLDER Filed Oct. 1?, 1946 April '13, 1948.

2 Sheets-Sheet l INVENTOR ALBERT A. GORDON 3rd ATTQRNIEY April 13, 1948.

A. A. GORDON, 3RD

- "HAND. RAIL AND REED HOLDER Filed Oct. 17, 1946 lNVENTOR ALBERT A.00/?00/1/ 5m ATTORNEY Patented Apr. 13, 1948 Albert A. Gordon,

3rd, Worcester, Mass., ass'ignor :to LOromp'ton '& Knowles Loom iWorks,Worces ter,=Mass.,.a corporation of Massachusetts Application October17, 194,6, Serial'No.7I03,81'1

'5 Claims.

This invention relates 'to improvements in hand rails and reed holdersfor'looms and it is thegeneral object of the invention toprovide ahandrail and reed holder 50 made that it has negligible vibration duringloom operation.

During the operation of a loom theilay swings baekwardiyand forwardly bypower derived from the crank shaft and when it reaches approximatch; itsmid position on its backward stroke theshuttle is picked. The powerfor-picking the shuttle imposes a load on the loom driving motor which'causes *a temporary drop in the :rate of motion of the lay. ihe shuttleis picked out of a shuttle box having a binder .or shuttle checkexerting a "holding force on the shuttle, and when this holdingforce isovercome as the shuttle is moved -outofthebox there :is an endwisethrust imparted to the lay. The reed -along whichthe shuttle travels :isheld along its lower edge by a part of the lay and along itsupper edgeby .a handrail.

When looms are operated at high speed and hand rails are "made asconstructed heretofore, that is, of wood or combinations "of wood andsteel, the temporary interruption in the hackward motion of the lay andthe aforesaid end thrust incident to picking set :up vibrations in thehand rail which cause back-and forth move ments of the upper end ofthereed with respect to the lay. This .movement of the reed interfereswith the flight of the shuttle because of the fact that the reed 'doesnot present a straight line guide 'for the shuttle.

I have "found that when the hand rail is made o'fa light metal or alloythe'principal component of which is either magnesium or "aluminum'thehand rail vibration 'is veryslight and the reed is therefore held withits upper end in practically a straightline. The shuttle is thusguidedin a straight path along the lay and can be picked more smoothlyoutcfand-into shuttle boxes.

Hand rails generally'areprovidedwith ag-roove to receive the upper'endo'fthe reed and are customarily provided with some 'formof shuttle guardusually fastened by screws'or boltsto -the wooden part of the hand rail.It is another object "of my present invention to providea hand rail madein one piece of the metals already mentionedand having a reed receiving"groove on the. bottom of a rear vertical web, 'a'horizontal forwardly'extending top Web, and a depending "front apron or thelike serving as a'shuttleguard. 'I-h-e two Webs and apron are-integral and provide astiff but lightweight hand rail which possesses the advantages alreadymentioned.

. forth.

'En the accompanying drawings, wherein 'a convenient embodiment of myinvention is set forth,

Fig. -1 'is'a side elevation of part of a loom having the lay thereofprovided with my improved form of hand rail and reed holder,

Fig. 2 is an enlarged 'front elevation looking to the direction of arrowFig. 1,

Fig. '3 "is an enlarged planviewof-one end of the handrail looking inthe direction of arrow 3,Fig.

Figs. i and 5 are vertical sections on lines 4-44 and 5- 5,respectively, of Fig. 2, and

Fig. 6 is -a perspective'view of one end of the hand rail viewed fromthe rear thereof.

Referring to Fig. *1, the loom frame H1 is provided with topandbottomshafts l and i2 connected together "by the usual gearing I 3.The top'or crankshafthas a connector i4 attached as at +5 to a lay Itmounted on lay swords one of which is shown at I 1. The lay swords moveabout an axis relatively low *in the loom, the axis for the swords shown"in Fig. 1 being defined by a rocker shaft 1'8 which is fixed withrespect to the loom frame. As shaft ll rotates the lay moves back and"forthinthe usual manner. The lay is provided with -a shuttle box 20 toreceive theshu'ttle S, and'the latter when boxed lies between a boxback'21 fixed to the layand some form of check, suchas the usual binder 22.A picker stick -P picks the shuttle out of box 20 during rearwardmovement of the lay.

The warp W, supplied in usual manner, extends forwardly through a-reed'Rhavingtop and bottom rails '55 and 26 between which extend the reeddents 27. The lay 'swords have upward extensions 28 one of which isshown particularly in Fig. 4. The bottom rail 26 is held on the laybytheusual backstay 29.

When thepicker stick exerts end force'on-the shuttle S as the layreaches approximately the mid position of its backward stroke there is atemporary drop in loom speed, and the lay instead of 'moving rearwardlywith a smooth mo tion is subject to a slight interruption. Thisinterruption occurs at the same time the picker stick pushes theshuttleS out of the shuttle box 2e against "the frictional forces exerted bythe box back "24 and the binder 22. As the shuttle leaves the box itisguided through the warp shed along the reed R and ultimately reachesanother shuttle box at the opposite side of the loom. At the instant ofpicking, therefore, the lay is subject to forces tending to set upvibrations in the reed, and it is obvious that the rigidity of the reedwith respect to the lay will have an important bearing on the characterof motion of the shuttle.

In carrying my present invention into effect I provide a hand rail andreed holder designated generally at H having a rear vertical web 30, atop forwardly extending web 3|, and a depending shuttle guard apron 32.The two webs and apron are formed integral with each other and extendlengthwise across the lay. .The bottom of the rear web 38 is forked toprovide front and back walls 33 and 34, respectively, defining adownwardly opening groove 35 which receives the upper reed rail 2'5. Asshown in the drawings the rear wall 34 is curved backwardly so that thelower end thereof is behind the upper rear part of web 30, but this isnot an essential feature of the hand rail.

In order to receive the lay sword arms 28 the vertical web 30 at therear of each end thereof is provided with a flat surface 36 whichextends vertically downwardly from the top web 3| along the rear part ofthe vertical web 30 and cuts across the rear part of the rear wall 34 asshown in Fig. 6 to define a shoulder 31 which fits closely against theadjacent lay sword extension 28. An aperture 38 extends through the web30 and surface 36 below the top web 3| and above the front wall 33.Aperture 38 receives a bolt 39 having a head M3 which is drawn againstan elongated washer 4| when a wing nut 42 is tightened. The washer 4| ispreferably though not necessarily made of the same material as that ofwhich member H is made, and fits snugly between the top Web 3| and wall33 and is thus held against turning.

The previously mentioned apron 32 hangs downwardly substantiallyparallel to the rear web 30 and forms a shuttle guard which may be ofany desired depth. Because of the construction of the member Hsufiicient rigidity can be attained by having a relatively shallow apron32 and this permits a considerable amount of light to fall on the fellof the cloth. This is of particular advantage when center filling stopmotions are used.

A loom equipped with a hand rail and reed holder as set forthhereinbefore shows in actual practice that there is practically no backand forth vibration ,of the member H during loom operation. The handrail is light and when made of magnesium or aluminum, or alloys madeprincipally of these metals, the reed remains substantially straight andaffords a straight guide for the back wall of the shuttle. Tests made bysensitive instruments adapted to measure very small deflections showthat the usual hand rail is subject to considerable vibration as alreadymentioned, but when the hand rail is made as set forth herein the curverepresenting its deflections is to all intents and purposes a straightline.

While the hand rail has been described as being made of magnesium oraluminum, in actual practice an alloy of one or another of these metalsis used. Thus, in one instance, I havemade the hand rail of an extrudedalloy of magnesium containing 1.5% manganese. It is not known just whichproperty of these metals is responsible for the vibration dampeningeffect, but I believe their specific gravities and also their moduli o ea ticity 4 are closely associated with the advantages already mentioned.At room' temperature the specific gravity of magnesium can be taken as1.74, while that of aluminum is 2.80. It may be that such alloys as aresuitable for hand rails will vary slightly from these figures, but therange of specific gravity of the metal of which the hand rail is madewill be substantially from 1.74 to 2.80. The modulus of elasticity isapproximately 6,000,- 000 for magnesium and 10,000,000 for aluminum, andthere may be slight variations in these figures for alloysof these twometals. Wood such as has been used for hand rails heretofore has a rangeof modulus of elasticity of 1,285,000 for white ash native to NewEngland to 1,485,000 for western grown ash. The modulus of elasticity ofthe steel when used as a reinforcement for the wood is from 28,000,000to 29,000,000. The specific gravity of the wood is from .5 to .6, whilethe specific gravity of the reinforcing steel is from 7.7 to 7.83. Itwill therefore be seen that the metals mentioned herein lie intermediatewood and steel so far as the ranges of their specific gravity and moduliof elasticity are concerned.

From the foregoing it will be seen that I have it is made dampensvibrations to suchan extent that the top of the reed is prevented fromvibrating back and forth and the shuttle is for all practical purposesguided in a straight line across the lay. It will also be seen that theshuttle guard is integral with the hand rail and together with the rearand top webs 30 and 3| provides a reed holder possessed of considerablerigidity. The apron 32 forming the shuttle guard is so constructed as topermit a considerable amount of light to fall on the fell of the clothwhen the lay is in forward position, thereby facilitating an examinationof the weft when the loom is stopped by a center stop motion. Shoulder31 abuts lay sword extension 28 and assists in holding the member Hfirmly in position.

Having thus described my invention it will be seen that changes andmodifications may be made therein by those skilled in the art withoutdeparting from the spirit and scope of the invention and I do not wishto be limited to the details herein disclosed, but what I claim is:

,1. A combined hand rail and reed holder for a loom lay having layswords, said rail and holder being an elongated member having a verticalweb the lower end of which is divided to form front and back wallsdefining a reed receiving 2. A combined hand rail, reed holderandshuttle guard for a loom lay comprising an elongated one-piece memberhaving a rear vertical web the lower edge of which is formed with alongitudinal reed receiving groove, a top web extending forwardly fromthe top of said rear web, and an apron depending from the front of thetop web and forming a shuttle guard.

3. A combined hand rail, reed holder and shuttle guard for a loom laycomprising an elongated member having a rear vertical web the lower edgeof which is formed with a longitudinal reed receiving groove, a top webextending forwardly from the top of said rear web, and an aprondepending from the top web forward of and parallel to the rear web andforming a shuttle guard, said webs and apron being integral throughoutthe length of said member.

4. In a combined hand rail and reed holder for a loom lay having layswords, said rail and holder comprising an elongated member having arear web the lower edge of which is divided to form front and back wallsdefining a longitudinal groove to receive part of a reed, a top webextending lengthwise of said member and projecting forwardly from theupper part of said rear web, said front wall projecting forwardly fromthe rear web and extending lengthwise of said member, and means securingsaid member to said lay sword including an elongated washer in front ofsaid rear web and between said top web and front wall.

5. A combined hand rail and reed holder for a loom lay comprising anelongated member having a vertical web the lower edge of which is forkedto form front and back horizontally spaced longitudinally extendingwalls between which is located a reed receiving groove, said front wallextending forwardly from said rear web, and a top web integral with therear web extending forwardly from the upper part of the rear web andoverhanging said front wall.

ALBERT A. GORDON, 3111).

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file ofthis patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS OTHER REFERENCES The Textile Manufacturer, March1945, pages 109-111.

